Monday, November 24, 2014

To combat the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Facebook will raise awareness of the deadly disease and International Medical Corps’ emergency efforts to treat patients and train frontline health workers.

International Medical Corps is operating a 70-bed Ebola Treatment Unit in Bong County, Liberia, where its first responders are providing lifesaving care. In addition, International Medical Corps is establishing three additional Ebola treatment centers in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The four centers will give more than 1.5 million people access to that care. International Medical Corps is also scaling up its training efforts and will train 3,500 frontline health workers to safely treat patients and manage Ebola treatment units that are critical to ending the deadly epidemic.

“Facebook’s robust leadership and extraordinary scope will help educate millions of people about the Ebola crisis,” said Nancy A. Aossey, President & CEO of International Medical Corps. “As our first responders and health workers fight to contain and stop the disease at its source in West Africa, we applaud and are tremendously grateful to Facebook for its unparalleled global reach to generate timely support and tackle this global emergency.

Facebook will launch the campaign starting this Thursday, November 6.

The Ebola outbreak has infected more than 13,500 people and caused nearly 5,000 deaths. Key to combating the disease over the long-term will be building the capacity of local health workers to treat patients and prevent the spread of the outbreak.

International Medical Corps has responded to every major disaster of the last 30 years, delivering more than $1.8 billion in relief and training in more than 70 countries. Its approach of helping people in conflict and disaster zones to help themselves is critical to returning devastated communities to self-reliance. For more information visit: www.InternationalMedicalCorps.org. Also see us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.